Blue and white G3s and fruit-flavored iMacs in January. Thinner, lighter PowerBooks in May. The iBook in July. There's no question: when Steve Jobs makes a public appearance these days, he's always got some cool new product ready to show off. And that bodes really well for the Mac faithful looking to spend more money on fun new toys, since His Royal Steveness is scheduled to take the stage again at the next Seybold gathering in San Francisco at the end of this month. What's particularly interesting, though, are the conflicting "insider reports" about what exactly Steve plans to unveil...

See, several sources with contacts behind the Silicon Curtain are whispering to us that the Next Big Thing™ slated for introduction at Seybold is none other than the next generation of the professional Macintosh, the Power Mac G4. What will most definitely not be announced, these sources claim, is the new iMac, code-named "Kihei." And that makes a certain amount of sense, given that Seybold is very much a professional's conference-- the introduction of a consumer device just wouldn't make sense. In fact, we're hearing that Kihei-- with its new enclosure, larger screen, AV options, and possibly even removable media bays-- won't surface anytime this quarter, making October a more likely target date.

But MacCentral's sources are taking almost the opposite view. They're claiming that a new iMac is "likely," while a G4-based product is a "slim possibility," and they cite a very good reason: Motorola hasn't even announced the G4's arrival, let alone any kind of market availability for the new chips. Still, there are a few things to consider. First, just because a product gets introduced doesn't mean it'll be ready to ship; Steve could well wow the Seybold crowd with a pre-production G4 and announce availability at the end of the year. In the meantime, we suppose Apple could ship Sawtooth-based Power Macs with faster G3s, but that might detract from the overall "oomph" of the G4 as a product. Anyway, while we don't necessarily believe that a new iMac won't surface until October, we just can't see Apple introducing it at Seybold. Unless, of course, the rumored addition of FireWire will prompt Apple to demonstrate how the new consumer iMac is powerful enough to use for professional video editing. Hmmm...

The iBook ship date is drawing ever closer... or is it? See, back when the iMac was first unveiled on May 6th of last year, the phrase "shipping in 90 days" was tossed around a bit. And Apple actually came pretty close to making that schedule; a firm ship date of August 15th was announced at some point along the line, and iMacs squeaked onto the shelves just in time. That was a total of 101 days from announcement to availability. The iBook situation, though, is still kind of vague. When the Consumer Portable Formerly Known As "P1" was first introduced, we believe Steve Jobs stated it would be shipping in late September, but no firm date has yet been set. And depending on whom you choose to believe, the day you can go buy an iBook and take it home with you varies wildly.

First of all, if you pre-order an iBook at the Apple Store, you'll notice you're quoted an estimated ship time of 70 days. If that's accurate, then placing your order today will get you your iBook on October 19th. Now, there are a few different possibilities here. The first is that the estimated 70-day ship date is utterly meaningless-- just a number that someone typed in to fill the required field, which hasn't even been updated since the iBook first got entered into the Apple Store's system. (Unfortunately, we think that's probably the likeliest scenario; add 70 days to the date of the iBook's unveiling and you get September 29th-- otherwise known as "late September.") The second is that the iBook's availability date really is slipping forward every day, and the Blueberry and Tangerine laptops will make their big on-the-shelf debut in mid-to-late October. And the third is that the 70-day lead time takes into account all of the other pre-orders Apple's already taken. Meaning, those early birds who rushed to order an iBook as soon as Steve held one aloft in the Javits Center will get theirs in late September, but poor shmoes like us who haven't bothered to order yet will have to wait an extra three weeks in line.

Now, that last possibility makes a lot of sense. By most accounts, iBook pre-orders by resellers are through the roof; Apple Insider has some preliminary numbers, and they're pretty staggering: CompUSA has 50,000 on order. Pinacor, the smaller of Apple's two distributors, has 4000. ClubMac, MacMall, and MacZone have reportedly each ordered about 1000. According to iBookZone, MacWarehouse has at least 7000 on order-- but they're also holding out hope that MacWarehouse's September 1st ship date is true, so we'd take that with a grain of salt or two. Still, there's no question that pre-orders for the iBook are running high, so whenever the first units start to ship, the earlier you place your order the less time you'll have to wait.

Bored to tears by summer reruns? Fret not, drama junkies-- it's almost "Redmond Justice" time once again! As faithful viewer Rick Stolba was kind enough to remind us, this is the week in which both Microsoft and the government are to submit their respective summaries of the facts in the case as each side sees them. Think "Cliffs Notes," but hundreds of pages long, without the funky black and yellow striped cover, and available in separate Good and Evil editions. (It's up to you to decide which version is which. Hey, even Cliffs Notes can't do all the work for you.) An Associated Press article has more on this next big step.

Microsoft, predictably, will focus on what they feel is the government's utter failure to prove that the Redmond Giant even holds a monopoly, let alone hurts consumers by abusing one. To support that view, it's expected that Microsoft will pounce all over a slip made by the government's own economic witness, Franklin Fisher, who admitted on the stand that Microsoft's actions haven't harmed consumers "up to this point." We can only hope that the government's summary will retaliate by using the words of Microsoft's own economic witness, Richard Schmalensee ("SHMALENSEE!!"), against them; his claim that Microsoft holds no monopoly because real competitors might show up in the future seems appropriate, no? Anyway, each side gets a month to go over the other side's summary, and then they will be able to make revisions to their own filings and return them by September 10th. Then it's back into the courtroom for more arguments on the 21st, so clear your viewing schedules.

The latest episode in the "Redmond Justice" saga is certainly one step closer to the final fade to black, but don't worry: Judge Jackson's decision in the case isn't expected until sometime next year. That assumes, of course, that the two sides don't settle out of court first. Ongoing attempts at settlement negotiations have been somewhat less than successful so far, despite Bill Gates' claim that "we've always wanted to settle this thing." A New York Post article notes a Gates interview in The New Yorker, in which he gives his usual spiel about needing to retain the "right to innovate," yadda yadda yadda. We've heard all that a million times before. The Post article is really noteworthy, though, because it goes on to mention glimpses into Gates' character unearthed by The New Yorker. For instance, one of Gates' friends reveals that he's a bad sport; during a game of charades, when he found his team was losing, Bill "accused his friends of cheating. 'You're not allowed to do that! Wait a minute! This is an infraction!' If he couldn't win, he'd find an infraction. It was absurd." Suddenly all the pieces fall neatly into place, don't they?